HEC Homeschool Group

The mission of Home Education Creations Homeschool group is to encourage home educators to create an environment that helps them succeed at educating their children. Customizing the curriculum to meet your and your children's needs are vital to a successful homeschool. Join the HEC Homeschool Facebook group to share and learn new ideas! There is no cost to join! Join today at facebook.com/groups/HECHomeschool.  

How to save BIG money on college textbooks!

College textbooks have always been overpriced. Truthfully, sometimes it is a big money making scam. Even more so now with digital textbooks being automatically added to tuition and fees (which they should allow you to opt out of). So, if you still need a physical textbook, read on how to save big bucks!

This post below was originally published to my personal Facebook profile on January 8, 2014. 

STUDENTS, if your classes will be starting soon - get your textbook info now. Email your professors, visit the school's bookstore website, visit the bookstore - whatever you have to do to get that ISBN. Go to dealoz.com and search for the textbook. It will check new, used, rentals, and ebooks. You can also see what site will pay you the most for your used textbooks, non fiction, fiction, etc.

Before you buy, check the publishers website to see if there is another format available: hardback, paperback, loose leaf, older version, international edition. Many times the publishers will release a new edition, without really changing the contetnts. You can usually see the chapters and their titles on the publishers website. You can also google this info. They may move a chapter around, change the wording slightly, etc. 99% of the time, the content is the exact same or very close. If one textbook is only used as a supplement, get the older version - if the contents are close. Tell your professor, if you need to, that you have an older edition. That way they can help you find a chapter if your book is different.

I am taking 6 classes this semester. Total cost for my textbooks was $184.86. If I had bought them all used at the college bookstore, it would have cost me $970.50 Yes, more than $900! The Legal Enviroment of Business course textbook is $350.25 new, $262.75 used, and $174.99 rental. I found an international edition on eBay with Buy it Now price of $50.00, submitted an offer of $35 with $15.95 shipping. That book was $50.95 total. Biology is $214.75 new, $161.25 used, $92.34 rental. I bought it from someone local off a Facebook garage sale page for $20. For three other courses, i purchased older editions of textbooks. The content was the exact same. Only spent $31.86 on these older editions. TOTAL I SAVED WAS $846.64! 

Also, be weary of "Custom Editions". These are often photo copied textbooks with the colleges own custom cover slapped on the front. I took Oral Communication years ago. The textbook required was a custom edition, it was litterally photo copied and was about $50. I looked on the inside, and it listed the two textbooks that the content came from. It just so happened, that a few months before my mother purchased an Public Speaking textbook for me at Goodwill for $1.99. This was the textbook that was a part of the custom edition! I found the other textbook on half.com for about $4. I actually used small post it notes and labeled which chapter was included in the custom edition. I may have been the only one in my class with two textbooks, with post it notes, and having to rotate which book I was using - but I saved about $54! 

My husband has been very guilty of just going to the bookstore and buying or lately renting his textbooks. And he has always waited till the first day of class. He did that this past Fall semester, rented his textbook for $116.99. I found the exact same book online for sale used for $50 and rental for $24. Can we say STUPID TAX????!!!!! This semester he did much better, he got me the ISBN in December. Rented it from Amazon for $14. It is an older version too, the new one was about $90 to rent.

STUDENTS, DO YOU RESEARCH ON YOUR TEXTBOOKS! EMAIL OR CALL YOUR INSTRUCTORS! DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO NOT PAY BOOKSTORE PRICES!

My Math Assistant for Saxon Math

We have used Saxon Math for several years now and love it. In my opinion, it is the BEST math program. I personally believe it is very important for my older students to check their own work. Although, honestly, I do not trust them to keep the solutions manual in excellent condition. So, I had to find an alternative. We have tried the two most popular online video instruction and grading websites designed for Saxon math. Out of the two, we chose to subscribe to My Math Assistant. It is worth it!

My Math Assistant offers online video instruction and online grading. We tried the video instruction, but decided not to subscribe to that portion. The video instruction was good, but unfortunately, did not follow the Saxon Math textbook (due to copyright). My student had a hard time following the video instruction because a different problem was used to teach the lesson. Other students (not mine) are able to easily follow along with video instruction without any issue. My best advice, have your student try to video instruction and see if they like it.

The online grading is excellent. My student is able to log in, select the lesson and begin checking their work immediately. The online grading gives immediate feedback if the answer is correct or wrong. The student has multiple attempts to enter the correct answer, or can click "I need help" to notify the teacher. After a student has completed a lesson, a report will be generated. It will show the student's answer, the correct answer, the number of attempts, and if the student marked it "I need help." These reports easily allow me to verify that my student completed their entire lesson. It also allows me the opportunity to assist my student with those problems that need a little more explanation.

The website is simple and easy to navigate. I do not find myself feeling lost while navigating this website. For each student, I can customize several settings: Question Options, . . . Facts Practice, Test Prep, etc. The owner is always seeking subscriber feedback to improve the website. Several improvements have been made that truly given My Math Assistant an advantage over the competition.

I highly recommend My Math Assistant for every home educator that uses Saxon math in their homeschool. Subscriptions start as low as $4.99 per month. You can signup at MyMathAssistant.com and use code MMA20944 to get $5.00 off your first month! That is basically getting a one month free trial!

I do earn commission for purchases made with the above referral code. Please refer to my disclosures for more information.

Trust, but Verify

This was originally published on my Facebook page on August 19, 2015.

For several years, I have used the term "trust, but verify". It was just recently that I learned that Ronald Reagan is best know for using this Russian proverb during the cold war. It holds such true meaning and to so many things. We should apply it to our lives everyday, along with what God calls us to do.

Now, I would like to address what this post is really about . . . sharing posts on Facebook. As you scroll through your news feed, do you often share posts that your friends have posted or shared? Sure you have, I have too. Have you ever stopped to verify the source of information, photo, or video that you just shared? Unfortunately, most folks don't. As soon as they see something that they like, they will share it.

Just the other day, I was scrolling through my news feed and noticed a really awesome science video that an friend shared. It was indeed an awesome video. Then, I clicked on the source . . . the page. I will leave out all the details, but there were some very inappropriate pictures on that page . . . one of them being the cover photo. Needless to say, I quickly hit the back button. 

The science video being posted on this page was very deceptive. Unfortunately, there are numerous scams, inappropriate images, etc. all over Facebook. One must be very careful what they read, look at, like, and especially share on Facebook. 

Before you share the next posts, picture, video, etc., take a moment to "trust, but verify."
"Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves."

Matthew 7:15

©  Home Education Creations, Melody Martin

Saxon Math: Differences Between the Editions

This article was originally posted in the Classical Conversations – Official Facebook group on July 23, 2015. It has been slightly revised since it was originally published.

Over the past few days, I have seen a LOT of discussion about Saxon Math books. After a lot of personal research, I discovered that there are basically three distinct versions of Saxon Math textbooks. 

 ORIGINAL TEXTBOOKS

First, there are the original textbooks that were published by Saxon Publishing. John Saxon wrote most of the upper level math books by himself. There were a few books that John Saxon did have a co-author help him finish some of the advanced upper level math books.  He sought others or co-authored the lower level textbooks to complete the Saxon Math series. Saxon Publishing was established in 1981 and remained independent until 2004. The books in the original Saxon Math Series are most commonly hardback textbooks, with the K-3 teacher editions being spiral bound. The books in this series are the ones that most homeschoolers are familiar with.

To fully understand John Saxon’s incremental development approach in his math books, I highly recommend purchasing two books: Using John Saxon’s Math Books by Art Reed and John Saxon’s Story: A genius of common sense in math education by Nakonia (Niki) Hayes. Here is an excerpt from Ms. Hayes book (http://saxonmathwarrior.com/Saxon-booklet.pdf).

 John Saxon died in 1996. Saxon Publishing was sold to Reed Elsevier, the parent company of Harcourt Achieve in 2004. Saxon Publishing was sold by Saxon's children. "Over the years we have been approached by many companies interested in acquiring Saxon.  I am pleased to say we believe Harcourt has the experience, resources and the commitment to further our father's vision and to continue the success of the company he founded," said John H. Saxon III on behalf of the Saxon Family (http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/harcourt-achieve-announces-acquisition-of-saxon-publishers-inc-74295532.html, this link no longer works – I have requested that the article be made available again)." The CEO, Frank Wang, the protege to John Saxon co-authored two of the upper level math books. Wang remained on staff on until 2003, just before Saxon Publishing was sold to Reed Elsevier/Harcourt Achieve.

HOMESCHOOL EDITIONS

Second, there are the homeschool editions that are most commonly paperback. These were published after Saxon Publishing was bought by Harcourt Achieve in 2004. Much of the content in these textbooks are notably different than the original books. Many of the books in this series were rewritten and completely restructured. These books maybe significantly different, but still have some comparable similarities to the original textbooks. One notable difference that I have seen first hand is the addition of mental math. It is important to note that John Saxon did NOT include additional mental math exercises in his original books. These are essentially a filler in the books to increase the number of pages. Some of the textbooks that fall into this category will be third or fourth editions, some paperback and some hardback. Here is an article with more information on Harcourt Achieve and Saxon (http://archive.lewrockwell.com/taylor/taylor75.html).

NEWEST EDITIONS

Harcourt was acquired by Houghton Mifflin in 2007.  These newer editions are published by Houghton Mifflin. They have been completely rewritten, restructured, and stripped of the "incremental approach" that John Saxon was most noted for. To meet the demands of the common core math standards, the majority of these textbooks are filled with "filler" math and unnecessary exercises. The lower level books that fall into this category will have Intermediate, Course 1, Course 2, etc. on the front cover. These textbooks are not true to the Saxon name. Truthfully, these textbooks don't deserve to be called Saxon Math. Here is an article on the newest Algebra 1 edition vs a true Saxon Algebra 1 (http://drshormann.com/2012/02/08/differences-in-3rd-and-4th-edition-saxon-algebra-1/).

I have included pictures of the ORIGINAL version textbooks. If you are considering purchasing Saxon textbooks and want the true Saxon Incremental Approach, the books you buy NEED to look like these.   

Finally, I will have uploaded the ORIGINAL placement tests and Scope & Sequence to the Saxon Math for Homeschool Facebook group It took MANY hours searching to locate these. Thankfully, the websites that I found had actually uploaded them to their website and not just linked them. These placement tests and scope & sequence's can NOT be found on the Houghton Mifflin website. These are rare, so DOWNLOAD them if you want to access it later.